Bulgarian Prime Minister Vows to Reject Tainted Donations

Organized crime has been an issue for many years in Bulgaria. However, ever since the country became a part of the European Union, there has been a lot more pressure on the politicians to root out the organized crime. Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev’s party was accused of taking $170,000 from people being accused of being a part of a criminal network. The European Union has been investigating this group and because of their suspicions has decided to cut off $670 million to Bulgaria which will hurt the country since it is the poorest nation in the bloc.

Mr. Stanishev claims that he and his party are innocent. Furthermore, he said that investigation is currently being conducted and any money that is proven to be tainted will be donated to charity.

The network that is being investigated is known as the Nikolov-Stoykov group. Mr. Nikolov is facing a trial and he says “I know that I am not guilty, and I will do everything with my lawyers to prove that. But the pressure is too high.” He has a very pessimistic view on the outcome, saying “I’m afraid that I will be sacrificed for society,” because according to him “Europe wants to have guilty people.”

The European Union is definitely not pleased with the situation in Bulgaria right now. Therefore, The European Commission - the European Union’s executive body - has to decide whether or not more than $330 million dollars of frozen aid will be lost to Bulgaria forever.

The complete article can be found at: Bulgarian Prime Minister Vows to Reject Tainted Donations.